The Democrats' failed 2004 presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, may have just sabotaged his party's highest hopes for the 2006 midterm elections. Karl Rove himself couldn't have engineered a better campaign reminder of the Democrats' utter lack of credibility when it comes to supporting, respecting and leading America's military.

Here is what Sen. Kerry told an audience of young people at a campaign event on the Pasadena City College campus on Monday held for losing California Democrat gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides:

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

And this man aspired to be our nation's 21st-century commander in chief with that Neanderthal 1960s attitude? Both a local NBC news affiliate reporter and a Pasadena Star-News reporter mentioned Kerry's statement without fully realizing the condescending slam against our, ahem, all-volunteer armed forces embedded in the remarks. The Star-News did observe that the derisive comment was met with "a mixture of laughter and gasps." [Dem stars rally on campus, By Cortney Fielding Staff, October 30, 2006] But it wasn't until after KFI-AM Los Angeles radio show host John Ziegler posted the audio on the Internet (MP3) and a YouTube user posted video of the event that a firestorm broke out on the airwaves and across the right side of the blogosphere.

America has the best-trained, most professional, most well-educated military in the world. But the moonbats want only to hear the myths of the soldier-as-victim or the soldier-as-brutalizer or soldier-as-indentured servant.

Never mind that for every two volunteer recruits coming from the poorest neighborhoods, there are three recruits coming from the richest neighborhoods, as The Heritage Foundation recently reported. [ Who Are the Recruits? The Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Enlistment, 2003–2005 by Tim Kane, Ph.D. October 27, 2006] Never mind that 99.9 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education. Never mind that 49.2 percent of officers have advanced or professional degrees; 39.4 percent have master's degrees; 8.5 percent have professional degrees; and 1.3 percent have doctorate degrees.

Kerry's response to the backlash from military families around the globe? An adviser admitted to the National Journal that his boss's botched warning to students was "mangled". But a Kerry press release instead attacked Rush Limbaugh, White House spokesman Tony Snow and "assorted right-wing nut-jobs" (present!) for the words that came out of his mouth and his mouth alone. The Associated Press water-carrier for Kerry and the Dems, left-wing reporter Jennifer Loven, dutifully recycled the Democrat line that Kerry was really targeting President Bush, not the lazy, uneducated troops "stuck in Iraq." [White House, Kerry Exchange Accusations]

Nonsense. The intent was clear enough for at least some in the audience to "gasp," as the local reporter on the scene described.

This is no isolated case of Democrat incompetence and insensitivity toward the military. Kerry's party is the party of Dick Durbin, who likened American interrogators and Gitmo military staff to Nazis, Soviet gulag operators and genocidal maniac Pol Pot. 

Kerry's party is the party of Patty Murray, who praised Osama bin Laden's charity work with nary a nod to our men and women in uniform who have sailed and flown to the most far-flung regions of the world on reconstruction and humanitarian missions.

Kerry's party is the party that approved of him tarring American troops as terrorizers in Iraq last year.

And Kerry's party is the party whose national party website couldn't even find an American soldier to illustrate a page dedicated to "Veterans and Military Families". Until a military reader of my blog called attention to it, the DNC site erroneously featured a photo of a Canadian soldier named "Abdul" in its attempt to show support for American troops.

Can you trust a party with such entrenched disdain and contempt for the military to use that power well and wisely at a time of war?

America made a choice in 2004. Two years later, the Democrats have said and done nothing to earn the nation's endorsement now.

Michelle Malkin [email her] is author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores. Click here for Peter Brimelow's review. Click here for Michelle Malkin's website. Michelle Malkin's latest book is "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild."

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